It is well known that aromatic hydroxides represented by phenol, catechol, resorcinol and hydroquinone are important chemical products used for various applications such as photographic reagents, antioxidants and the like. Ideally, synthesis of aromatic hydroxides is performed in one step by oxidation of the corresponding aromatic hydrocarbon; however, selective oxidation of aromatic compound is difficult. To synthesize hydroxide from the corresponding hydrocarbon by one step oxidation, use of a highly dangerous peroxide such as hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid is required (patent document 1, non-patent document 1). Thus, the development of a reaction to safely convert aromatic hydrocarbon to the corresponding aromatic hydroxide has been desired. Particularly, since control of reactivity is extremely difficult during selective introduction of plural hydroxyl groups and the synthesis requires multistep reactions, the development of a superior production method has been desired. Heretofore, direct hydroxylation of aromatics using photocatalyst powder particles such as titanium oxide and the like has also been considered, and it is known that hydroxide is in fact produced. However, since hydroxide produced is sequentially oxidized to allow cleavage of aromatic ring and peroxidation up to carbon dioxide, both the reaction yield and the selectivity are extremely low. In general, when a photocatalyst powder such as titanium oxide and the like is utilized for the reaction, an oxygen molecule is used as an electron acceptor that efficiently reacts with the electron produced by photoexcitation. When an oxygen molecule is present, however, peroxidation reaction by radical chain reaction is promoted, which markedly decreases the yield and the selectivity of the object product. Moreover, when ultraviolet rays are irradiated to excite titanium oxide, photochemical reaction of aromatic compounds progresses to further decrease the selectivity of the object hydroxide (non-patent documents 2, 3, 4).    patent document 1: WO 2006-043075    non-patent document 1: Acc. Chem. Res., vol. 8, page 125 (1975)    non-patent document 2: J. Electroanal. Chem. vol. 126, page 277 (1981)    non-patent document 3: Catalysis Today, vol. 101, page 291 (2005)    non-patent document 4: Chemistry Letters, page 1691 (1983)